O'Rourke joins lawmakers in fight against ICE incarceration quota

Nearly 80 members of Congress, including U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso, are seeking to end the mandatory 34,000-bed detention bed quota for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to a letter signed by the House members.

The letter dated March 31 is addressed to the chairman of the Homeland Security subcommittee on appropriations. As of Friday, the quota language in the budget bill remained unchanged.

"(This) policy wastes taxpayer dollars by forcing ICE to forgo alternatives to detention that are far less costly and equally as effective," the letter said. "We currently spend nearly $2 billion a year, or $5.4 million every day, on immigration detention. Each day, ICE is mandated to keep 34,000 detention beds full, which costs taxpayers approximately $159 per day for each detainee.

"Proven alternatives to detention, including release on bond, supervised release, and community-based program, cost between 70 cents and $17 a day, yet the immigration detention bed quota prevents ICE from using these alternatives, even in cases where release would be appropriate."

Josiah Heyman, endowed professor of border trade issues at the University of Texas at El Paso, said the detention bed quota is a bad idea that does not serve to deter undocumented immigrants from entering the United States.

Heyman said: "The ICE bed quota is kept in place by an alliance of two agendas: people who think that punishment will be a deterrent to unauthorized migration, and the direct economic interests of the ICE bureaucracy, detention officers and their union, and contract detention center operators.

Advertisement

"This will change when people become more aware of the fiscal irresponsibility and big government features of this policy," Heyman said, "combined with the human cost of requiring detentions no matter what mitigating factors are involved."

Other members of Congress enacted the ICE bed quota in 2009 through language inserted into the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security. U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a right-of-center Democrat who died in 2010, is credited with instituting the quota.

"The ICE bed quota is kept in place by an alliance of two agendas: people who think that punishment will be a deterrent to unauthorized migration, and the direct economic interests of the ICE bureaucracy, detention officers and their union, and contract detention center operators."

— Josiah Heyman, endowed professor of border trade issues at UTEP

Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano tried unsuccessfully to get the mandate removed, while President Barack Obama's administration's latest move has sought to have the quota reduced from 34,000 to 30,500.

Currently, ICE oversees 250 detention centers across the United States. In fiscal year 2012, about 478,000 immigrants were detained at the centers. According to businessweek.com, ICE contracts provided prison companies Corrections Corp. and Geo Group with nearly two-thirds of its detainees. In 2012, Corrections Corp. received $206 million (12 percent of its revenue) from ICE, and Geo received $255 million (17 percent of its revenue) from ICE.

ICE spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa said the capacity at the ICE detention center in El Paso is 840 beds and for the Otero County Processing Center in New Mexico, it's 1,000 beds. ICE did not response to questions about how many of the beds were occupied this week. Otero County owns the Otero County Processing Center and contracts with ICE to hold immigrant detainees. ICE operates the El Paso center in the East Side.

Pregnant women

Other critics of the quota policy say ICE has used women in various stages of pregnancy to help meet the quota, including at the El Paso ICE detention centers.

Zamarripa said in a written statement that there currently are no pregnant women in the El Paso ICE detention center.

"All ICE detainees receive an initial health screening by qualified medical staff soon after they arrive," the statement said. "Pregnant detainees are additionally provided ongoing pre-natal care with an off-site qualified doctor during their time in ICE custody.

"For pregnant detainees who are determined to be inadmissible but who claim credible fear upon entering the United States, ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations work to expedite their interview process; we make every effort possible to minimize the expecting-mother's time in custody," ICE said.

This past week, Fusion, a new English-language TV network that is a joint venture by Univision and ABC News, reported that based on information obtained with a Freedom of Information Act request, ICE held 40 pregnant women last year at its El Paso detention center. The centers hold undocumented immigrants who are undergoing removal proceedings and or are seeking asylum.

ICE officials would not confirm whether ICE held 40 pregnant women in El Paso last year. ICE officials confirmed only that there were 13 pregnant women jailed between August and November.

Fusion's report caught the attention of U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, who condemned the practice of holding pregnant women in detention cells. Previously, Murray managed to have language included in other legislation that bans the shackling of pregnant detainees.

A memorandum from ICE Director John Morton dated June 17, 2011, authorizes ICE officials to exercise prosecutorial discretion in the apprehension, detention and removal of undocumented immigrants. Pregnant and nursing women are among the factors that the ICE memo states may be weighed for "prompt particular care and consideration."

Prosecutorial discretion means that ICE officials can transfer detainees to other kinds of shelters or release them on bond or under other conditions.

Capacity and bonds

Barbara Hines, a clinical law professor and co-director of the University of Texas Immigration Clinic in Austin, reported Wednesday that ICE tended to set lower bonds for release whenever the detention center for women near Austin was at high capacity and set higher bonds whenever the center's capacity was low.

Ruben Garcia, executive director of the nonprofit Annunciation House, which oversees temporary shelters for immigrant refugees, said the organization sees between five to 10 pregnant women per year, and they often who are referred to its shelters by ICE or the Border Patrol. He pointed out another aspect of detentions that are little known to the public.

"People who are detained, let's say on a Friday, and whose processing lasts late into the day or early evening, are held in detention cells at the international bridges until Monday because the ICE center offices operate only Monday through Friday," Garcia said. "It's been our experience that the Border Patrol is more flexible about how they manage the detentions of pregnant women."

Earlier this year, two national advocacy organizations, Detention Watch Network and the Center for Constitutional Rights, filed a freedom of information lawsuit against ICE requesting more documents related to the ICE detention bed quota.

"Advocates say this lockup quota which mandates payments to private prison corporations that manage civil immigration facilities as well as local and state jails, is unprecedented in law enforcement practice," the two organizations said in a statement.

Detention Watch Network also stated that "detaining immigrants has become a billion-dollar industry for private prisons, which house 50 percent of those in (ICE) custody."

Robert M. Morgenthau, a former Manhattan district attorney, criticized the quota in a January column in the New York Daily News titled, "Immigrants jailed just to hit a number."

"Such a rigid number cannot help but have a corrupting influence on the entire process," Morgenthau wrote. "Imagine trying to get a fair trial in criminal court if your state legislature mandates that judges had to fill a certain number of prison cells each day."

The American Immigration Lawyers Association, a nonprofit organization that represents 13,000 immigration lawyers and law professors, also took a stand against the ICE detention bed quota.

"(It) is an aberration in law enforcement," the association said in a statement. "While ICE justifies detention of some immigrants because they pose a public safety risk, many immigrants do not need to be jailed. Over half of immigrant detainees between 2009 and 2011 had no criminal history."

Sufjan Stevens, "Carrie & Lowell" (Asthmatic Kitty) Plucked strings and pulsing keyboards dominate the distinctive arrangements on Sufjan Stevens' latest album, and in the absence of a rhythm section, they serve to keep time. Full Story

ODESSA, Texas (AP) — A West Texas man has been charged with impersonating an officer by using sirens and flashing lights to skip to the head of the drive-thru line at a fast-food restaurant. Full Story